Benedict Cumberbatch on Smaug’s Motion-Capture in The Hobbit

Benedict Cumberbatch, best known for playing the title character in the BBC’s “Sherlock,” will be seen in some high-profile big screen villain roles in the months and years to come. He’ll play a still-unknown interstellar foe in J.J. Abrams’ Star Trek Into Darkness and will lend voice and movement to the computer-generated Smaug in Peter Jackson’s The Hobbit trilogy. In a new interview with Total Film, Cumberbatch speaks about the latter performance and why we’ll have to wait until the end of 2013 to really experience it.

You just have to lose your s–t on a carpeted floor, in a place that looks a little bit like a mundane government building,” he says about donning the motion-capture outfit. “It was just me as well, with four static cameras and all the sensors. Then the boys at Weta work their magic Its very freeing, once you put the suit on and the sensors. Ive never felt less encumbered, actually. And you have to be. You have to be free.